Admit it, you’re a worrier. Always have been – even when you were still young. How do I know? Why else would you be reading this if you weren’t? Or okay, you’re not a worrier, not even when you were way younger, but you’re starting to entertain the idea of worrying.

Here’s what I found out: it takes about as much work to do or take care of the reason you were worried about as it does to actually just worry about it. What does that mean? It means that you’re actually making your life more complicated than it already is! It’s bad enough to have something that you CAN worry about, and it’s worse if you actually start to worry about it.

Now just imagine if you had a lifetime of worry. That’s some serious work you’re doing. You’re a hardworking fella, aren’t you? Yeah, but it’s work that you’re wasting, actually, since it produces nothing except more anxiety, and negative feelings about ourselves. And think of how many different ways we create this negative, unproductive work for ourselves. A lot of hardwork indeed!

Here are some of the things that also add up to and complicate your worries:

• Too much organization: Now who would ever think that too much organization lead to worry? You say: “One can never be too organized.” Not quite. I think even the reason why you’re becoming too organized is because you worry too much. If you take on this kind of behavior—too organized—you’ll be paranoid. Be balanced. Don’t really make it a point to do something messy. But always be open to the possibility that there will be times that mess will come. Be open to every possibility. The key word there is open—being open. Not worrying, but being open.

• Procrastination: This is a classic “waster” of time, investing your energy in anxious worry instead of in our ostensibly chosen work. Procrastination has numerous negative qualities, but in this case, the important thing is that when you procrastinate work that really needs to be addressed now, you’re actually just creating more work by becoming a worrier about how you’re going to finally do the work. And then you’ll worry that you’ll have not enough time… well, by then I think you should worry.

• Disorganization: Whenever you’re not organized you start to worry about how to be organized. Then you’ll start to worry about how to organize your life or workplace or your business organization. Then you’ll start to worry about how to go about it. You’ll start to worry if you can really pull this off. Then you can add more worry to that. Has real work been done? No. It’s all worrying.

Your thoughts

What about you? Are you a worrier, or are you open? What do you do whenever you face challenges in your life or business? What do you like to add to the things mentioned? What do you like to share to us?